Comments for eschata

Comment on Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson (1994) by Gianni

Gianni — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:23:35 +0000

Hahaha Love it! Nice work!
Cheers

Comment on Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson (1994) by Matt

Matt — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:54:23 +0000

Sorry about that Gianni. I’ve added the requested Spoiler Alert, above.

Comment on Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson (1994) by Gianni

Gianni — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:49:56 +0000

Thanks for spoiling the story. A “Spoiler Alert” would have been nice. I’v only got a few chapters to go. Oh well…

Comment on Republicans are crazy about taxes by Matt

Matt — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:16:34 +0000

Well, Republicans like some things, like private clubs. Maybe we could call taxes ‘dues’ or something.

Comment on Republicans are crazy about taxes by Karen Park

Karen Park — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:16:38 +0000

I agree, I think there needs to be a new word for taxes. The Republicans have a disease or something. They have truly become crazy when it comes to this word. What new word could we use?

Comment on Conscience, Liberty, and the Wall of Separation by Matt

Matt — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:13:19 +0000

Stan thank you for your comment. Sorry I didn’t notice it for so long! But here it is, a useful adjunct to what I have written, surely. We miss you at MHC.

Comment on Conscience, Liberty, and the Wall of Separation by Stan Dotson

Stan Dotson — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:38:25 +0000

Hey Matt – wonderful essay! I love that you are introducing your students to John Leland. What a treasure in Baptist heritage as well as American history. One interesting dynamic I see with him is how he squared freedom of conscience with his incredibly fervent evangelical zeal – he reputedly converted thousands of people. Today, our culture has this fuzzy notion of “tolerance” (a somewhat problematic term) that says “witnessing” to someone is somehow offensive and not respectful. Seems to me another example of turning liberty on its head. But, on the other hand, relative to Native American experiences and philosophies: one of those early 19th century Virginia converts to the Baptist faith was Humphrey Posey. But his was a different brand of Baptist, relative to the wall of separation. After pastoring several churches in western NC (his first church was right here in my neighborhood of Fairview), he was hired by President Monroe and John Calhoun to be a missionary agent of the Department of War, with the goal of converting Cherokee. Of course these “conversions” were far more than to Christianity; they were cultural conversions meant to assimilate them into some kind of conformity with white culture, or to prepare them for peaceful removal, etc. Wonder what John Leland would have thought of that. Also, one more thing on Leland – with the current debates over Islam and its role in American life: here’s a quote from him following the adoption of the Constitution: “If a man merits the confidence of his neighbors in Virginia — let him worship one God, twenty Gods, or no God — be he Jew, Turk, Pagan, or Infidel, he is eligible to any office in the State.”

Comment on Ontology as the Forbearance of God by Matt

Matt — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:36:58 +0000

Thank you for this erudite and awesome clarification Jon.

Comment on Ontology as the Forbearance of God by Jon Cohen

Jon Cohen — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:20:23 +0000

For Berkeleyan idealism, it’s important to understand that man can know the mind of God by understanding the laws of nature. God orders ideas in the minds of men according to a pattern fixed according to his will. Observable phenomena follow predictably as discerned by empirical science. This is what gives objects the appearance of mind-independence. Whether moral laws are non-arbitrary in this way for Berkeley, and whether our fates are fixed analogously to our behavior for him (contra Calvinism), is something I don’t know.

Comment on The Plantation by Matt

Matt — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:22:39 +0000

Hi Todd thanks for reading and sharing your comment! Philbrick may be right, I’ll have to sharpen my use of the terminology here and look up this little detail. Whatever else they may have been called, we also know that the Plymouth settlers were “separatists” whereas the Massachusetts Bay colonists were “non-separatists” … that’s an important distinction.